14 year old Laura Robson won the junior title at Wimbledon and entered some $10K events before reaching the SF of the $75K at Shrewsbury. She entered the senior ranking lists on 13th October at 550, already half way up the list, and reached a career high of 507 after winning the $10K in Sunderland. She seems destined to be our top player before long and for many years to come.
Anne Keothavong became the first player for 10 years to have broken into the top 100 after winning the $50K in Jounieh in the middle of what soon became a war zone. After winning the title she made her escape over the border. Since then Anne has gone from strength to strength with successful runs in WTA events and 4 ITF titles. As a result her ranking has now risen to 61 an improvement of 71 places over the year.
For a while it looked as if Katie OBrien would join Anne in the top 100 but after reaching a career high of 104 in June she fell back in the 2nd half of the season.
Jocelyn Rae was another player who entered the rankings for the first time this year. She has had a particularly good run in the last few weeks in Australia. When her latest results are taken into account she should go to about 550 for a rise of about 600 places in the year. She is also becoming a very useful doubles player winning the $25K doubles title in Kawana.
Amanda Elliott won the Glasgow $25K doubles title. Despite playing a very ambitious schedule of WTA and higher rated ITF tournaments Amanda has still managed to rise by 329 places to a career high of 311.
After making little progress in 2007 Mel South made up for it by storming up the rankings to become the GB number 2 at both singles and doubles rising 104 places to reach a career high of 110 in the singles and 124 in the doubles.
Order % 2007 Latest _ Change Names
1 __ 55% 1152 _ 515 __ +637 _ Laura Robson
2 __ 54% 132 __ 61 ___ +71 __ Anne Keothavong
3 __ 51% 640 __ 313 __ +327 _ Amanda Elliott
4 __ 49% 214 __ 110 __ +104 _ Melanie South
5 __ 44% 1152 _ 642 __ +510 _ Jocelyn Rae
6 __ 43% 380 __ 216 __ +164 _ Georgie Stoop
7 __ 41% 1152 _ 682 __ +470 _ Johanna Konta
8 __ 36% 723 __ 462 __ +261 _ Naomi Broady
9 __ 36% 867 __ 557 __ +310 _ Amanda Carreras
10 _ 31% 811 __ 556 __ +255 _ Yasmin Clarke
11 _ 30% 581 __ 408 __ +173 _ Emily Webley-Smith
12 _ 28% 187 __ 135 __ +52 __ Elena Baltacha
Big thanks again to Peter. Please vote and debate !!!
Konta is still an Aussie according to the WTA and ITF websites.
Can I ask anyone how South can be so good and highly ranked for a girl of her size? Does anyone else think that if she toned up, she could be a top 50 player? She hits the ball off both wings as big as a Mirza or Bondarenko and has a better serve also. She needs literally to lose a little weight and improve her court coverage.
One big scalp and she could easily break through in 2009!
Anne for most improved, Robson for the top 200 next year.
Does anyone know what the hell has happened to Naomi Cavaday. After she split with Felgate earlier in the year, she has done nothing. Is gonna waste her obvious potential top 100 talent and get a tennis scholarship over in the states? Hopefully she is planning to take another crack at the big time!
can't split between laura and anne but I'ii pick anne . What about miss stoop? destined to go top 125 next year with no points to defend in first 6 months Amanda appears to me on the downgrade unless there is an explanation for her dreadful last six months. Mel it appears to me has benefitted from a number of poorly contested Australian tournaments to get her ranking up to 110 but I do believe she has the potential to reach the top 100
